You Will Need:
- Resealable sandwich bags. (you can compare cheap and expensive bags as another experiment)
- Vinegar
- Bicarbonate soda
- Tissue paper
- A cup
- Spoon and plate
- An outdoor area
- Optional: measuring cylinder.
“Bicarbonate soda ready to go”
Add a spoonful of bicarbonate soda into some tissue paper and set to one side. Repeat this several times, each time adding more and more bicarbonate soda.
Fill the resealable plastic bag with 100mL of vinegar.
Add the tissue paper with the least amount of bicarbonate soda into the resealable bag and seal the opening quickly to stop the produced carbon dioxide from escaping. You’ll see that the bag slightly inflates but doesn’t pop.
“Exploding sandwich bag about to pop.”
Repeat steps 1 to 3, each time adding the tissue paper the larger amount of bicarbonate soda until you get the bag to fill up with so much gas that the bag seal pops!
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Why Does This Happen:
-
Vinegar + Bicarbonate Soda —> Carbonic Acid + Sodium Acetate
The carbonic acid is unstable though, so it breaks down into water and carbon dioxide, causing the pressure to increase in the sandwich bag until it pops.
The tissue paper was used to slow down the experiment by reducing the contact of the vinegar with bicarbonate soda, at least enough so that you can seal the sandwich bag.
Variables to test
The idea of this experiment is not only to investigate chemical reactions but also to look at controlling variables and trialling small changes to see if there is a result.
- Change the amount of vinegar that you use.
- Change the amount of bicarbonate soda that you use.
- What happens if the vinegar is warm vs. cold?
- Add the bicarbonate soda without the tissue vs. with the tissue paper.
From colour changes to slimy science, we’ve got your kitchen chemistry covered!
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